The Pub - Discuss Anything

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Livestream by Eurovision song contest from basel Switzerland

Grand final.

Saturday night 17 May 2025

8pm UK to midnight

 

 

Edited May 16 by KEVINAA

[NikkiCFC 8,285]

On 16/05/2025 at 23:45, KEVINAA said:

Livestream by Eurovision song contest from basel Switzerland

Grand final.

Saturday night 17 May 2025

8pm UK to midnight

 

 

 

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Large family tent that's 'easy to assemble' drops from £1,100 to £275 in time for summer

Debenhams has cut a huge £825 off a large eight-man tent in time for camping season, and it's said to be 'easy to put up and take down'

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/shopping-deals/large-family-tent-thats-easy-35248431

With the recent sunny weather over the weekend, many could be looking for a last-minute camping trip and a tent that doesn't feel too cramped. In Debenhams's latest sale, the retailer has cut hundreds of pounds off a spacious family-sized one that's big enough to sleep eight people.

The Berkfield Home Family Tunnel Tent has been cut by 75% in the sale, dropping from £1,100 to a much cheaper £275. A huge £825 saving for shoppers looking to enjoy the outdoors more this summer, plus as unpredictable UK weather can be it comes with an 'all-round' waterproof design in case of showers.

Described as "heavy duty" by Debenhams it's proving popular with shoppers, as the site says more than 100 people have either looed at it in the last 24-hours.

The large family tent has a tunnel design with interior zips so campers can create different sections within the tent. Plus, it's said to be 'easy to assemble', a must for many, there's nothing worse than getting to a site and the tent taking hours to put up.

It's not the only tent on sale at Debenhams, this teepee style Outsunny one is reduced to less than £100, down from an original £148.99. Elsewhere, and retailer Cotswold Outdoors has a sale on too.

The Outwell Norwood six person tent is currently cut by £130.50 and has been 'tailored to fit large families or friends'. At Decathlon, the Quechua four-person tent is now £99.99, and has a sleeping compartment off the back of a 'full height' living space.

Debenhams shares how easy it is to put up in its listing: "Setting up and taking down the tent is a breeze thanks to the highly flexible and lightweight fibreglass poles and the convenient pin-and-ring connection system.

"The foldable and lightweight design allows you to easily pack the tent and store it in the included carry bag for easy transport." The Berkfield Home ten is made from polyester with a PU coating, which helps make it withstand rain and wind.

It also has taped seams which can 'prevent rain infiltration' and as standard to most tents, it comes with a ground sheet to keep the interior floor dry, and stops it feeling cold or damp from grass condensation.

There are no reviews for the tent on Debenhams site, which has a 2.4 star rating. There are a lot of satisfied shoppers, however a lot of the lowest ratings have been given for 'slow delivery'.

As one person said: "I buy so much from Debenhams that I love - but it is a shame that it's a struggle if you need to return an item." While another shopper said: "Received two lovely dresses pretty quickly. Sadly, neither for different reasons were suitable so I returned them within two days .... then I waited for over four weeks for a refund."

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Staub La Cocotte

https://www.zwilling.com/uk/staub-la-cocotte-28-cm-round-cast-iron-cocotte-buster-punch-black/1029898.html

28 cm round Cast iron Cocotte Buster Punch black

 

French cuisine meets English fashion hardware

• T-shape cross-knurl knob by Buster + Punch
• Culinary Masterpieces with solid metal finesse
• Classic enamelled black cast iron cocotte with cross-knurled handles
• Special edition knob designed by Buster + Punch
• A unique tactility of the knob

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Brian Wilson, visionary creative spirit for the Beach Boys, dies aged 82

Musician, who suffered from mental health problems, wrote and produced the 1966 album Pet Sounds – seen by many as the greatest album of all time

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jun/11/brian-wilson-beach-boys-dies

 

 

Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys musician, songwriter and producer who created some of history’s most purely beautiful pop music, has died aged 82.

In a post shared on Instagram on Wednesday, Wilson’s family wrote: “We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away. We are at a loss for words right now. Please respect our privacy at this time as our family is grieving. We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world. Love & Mercy.”

As the leading creative force in the Beach Boys, Wilson crafted a variously carefree and melancholy sound that came to define the uncertain utopianism of mid-century California. Using ambitious studio techniques to give the band’s music a thrilling grandeur, his songs about surfing, driving, girls and the pep of youth modulated to more reflective and often psychedelic material, resulting in one of the most highly regarded catalogues of American song. The Beach Boys’ 1966 album Pet Sounds – written and produced almost entirely by Wilson – is seen not only as the group’s masterpiece, but for many is the greatest album of all time.

Wilson was born in Inglewood, southern California, in 1942. A natural musician with perfect pitch who could sing back phrases sung to him as a baby, he learned piano as he and his younger brothers Carl and Dennis fell in love with R&B, rock’n’roll, doo-wop and pop. Despite going partly deaf in one ear (possibly as a result of an attack by a local boy), he and Carl joined their cousin Mike Love to form the high school group Carl and the Passions, later bringing in Dennis and friend Al Jardine to form the Pendletones. They had been encouraged by Wilson’s father Murry, with whom Wilson had a complex relationship – he later said Murry was also physically abusive to him.

Wilson’s first song for the group, soon renamed the Beach Boys, was 1961’s Surfin’ – the first in a series of Wilson-penned hits such as Surfin’ Safari, Surfer Girl and Surfin’ USA, the latter reaching No 3 on the US charts and cementing their breakthrough.

The Beach Boys in 1964. Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

 

Wilson graduated to producer, as well as songwriter, for third album Surfer Girl, and powered the group through an astonishingly high work rate, releasing 15 albums before the end of the 1960s. Wilson’s ambition meant that he strove not to be boxed in as a novelty band who sang about surfing and cars, and deepened the band’s songcraft – including on Pet Sounds, which was conceived as an overarching statement rather than a series of discrete songs, its complex arrangements featuring everything from orchestral instruments to Coca-Cola bottles.

Wilson began using cannabis and LSD, and said the latter was creatively useful – he wrote a signature Beach Boys song, California Girls, while on his first trip, and said acid allowed him to “come to grips with what you are, what you can do [and] can’t do”. But his drug use, coupled with his intense workload, likely exacerbated mental health problems that had started when he was a teenager suffering from anxiety.

He heard voices in his head, spent time in psychiatric hospitals during the late 1960s, and became somewhat isolated from his bandmates. Wilson would eventually be diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and mild manic depression. He said in 2019: “There were times when [his mental illness] was unbearable but with doctors and medications I have been able to live a wonderful, healthy and productive life.”

Amid his difficulties, Pet Sounds’ follow-up Smile was never completed (though was later adapted into a 2004 solo album, and the original recordings eventually released as The Smile Sessions in 2011). His bandmates began to contribute more to the songwriting, though Wilson compositions still occasionally featured as the group emerged from a commercial downturn at the close of the decade to record the acclaimed Sunflower and Surf’s Up albums (the latter’s title track a psychedelic return by Wilson to his earlier fixation).

snip

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NEWS UPDATE - AIR INDIA BOEING PLANE CRASHES AFTER TAKE OFF FROM AHMEDABAD, INDIA TO LONDON GATWICK AIRPORT.

+240 DEAD.

A London-bound plane has crashed shortly after take-off in Ahmedabad, western India

Air India says: "Flight AI171, operating Ahmedabad-London Gatwick, was involved in an incident today"

There were 232 passengers and 12 crew members on board, the chief of India's directorate of civil aviation tells AP

Tracking website Flightradar24 says it received the last signal from the aircraft at 625 feet (190m) "just seconds after take off"

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c8d1r3m8z92t

 

Video by BBC NEWS YT.

https://youtu.be/7PUtKpGa2OU

VIDEO LENGTH - 13:25

Edited June 12 by KEVINAA

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Flaps not straightened, landing gear not retracted.

Either technical fault with Boeing, or pilot error.

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The footage on X is horrific

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11 Of The Best Sandwich Shops In London

London’s sandwich scene is having a serious moment. From a century-old deli in Marylebone to a slew of openings that are turning out statement sangers, these are the hot spots to save for next time you’re hankering after a lunchtime sub.

https://slman.com/culture/restaurants/sandwich-shop-london

Crunch

Soho

 

On the corner of Dean Street and Old Compton Street, Crunch is a sandwich shop to get excited about. The team has built a cult following at Spitalfields over the past couple of years (they sell upwards of 15,000 sandwiches a month), but the new Soho site is their first permanent location – which means they are able to serve drinks and a breakfast menu for the first time. Each sandwich is made with homemade brioche-inspired bread, designed to hold firm against sauces and fillings. Our go-to? The Donald’s Duck – slow-cooked Gressingham duck leg, banana shallots, crispy onions and smoked apple sauce.

Visit SandwichUprising.com

Café Mondo

Camberwell

 

Following a run of successful pub residencies, Mondo Sando co-founders Jack Macrae and Viggo Blegvad have established a permanent presence on Peckham Road. Café Mondo is inspired by the nostalgic charm of everyone's favourite caffs, diners and dive bars – with sangers at the centre of it all. In the daytime, the team serves its cult sarnies (star turns include the Mondo Frango, Pork & Greens and Fish Finger options). At night, they’ll be dishing out a short, changing menu of bar snacks and small plates that will draw on deli and café classics, such as chicken schnitzel, patty melts, aubergine fritti and deep-fried treacle tart.

Visit @Mondo.Sanwiches

Gerry’s

Clerkenwell

 

Wandering down Exmouth Street last year, the retro sign for Gerry’s Hot Subs caught our eye. The place was still in the building stages then, but is now a next-level sandwich shop from the man who made a success of Bodean’s. Independently owned, Gerry’s is built on a lifelong passion for American food and decades of experience in the restaurant world. The team slow-cooks, cures, BBQs and prepares all the fillings, and freshly bakes the subs. We can attest to the greatness of the Philly cheesesteak.

Visit GerrysHotSubs.com

The Dusty Knuckle

Dalston

 

Behind Dalston Junction station in a sunny courtyard, The Dusty Knuckle serves some of the best food in the area, and at great value. Predominantly offering pastries and bread, you can also order the likes of roasted beetroot, whipped goat’s cheese, toasted seed mix and salsa verde served in signature focaccia sourdough. Want to learn how to make your own? The Dusty Knuckle Bakery School hosts a selection of masterclasses – and you’ll go home with a dough scraper, recipe pack and some of The Dusty Knuckle’s sourdough starter so you can recreate fresh loaves at home.

Visit TheDustyKnuckle.com

 

Norman’s

Tufnell Park

 

Norman’s launched in north London in 2020 and quickly became an Insta sensation, with queues down the street at weekends, and its own line of branded football shirts. Its menu showcases British café classics – from a set full English to retro lunch staples including fish and chips, toad in the hole and steamed puddings – plated up simply and made using quality ingredients. That all said, we still have eyes for the simple sandwiches. Its bacon sarnies and chip butties – on the obligatory white slice, served with a mug of builders – hit the mark every time.

Visit NormansCafe.co.uk

Max’s Sandwich Shop

Crouch End

 

North London institution Max’s Sandwich Shop is the new-generation OG on this list. Headed up by fillings wizard Max Halley, the café redefined the humble sandwich with its rotating roster of inventive fillings. Signature creations include the 'Ham, Egg & Chips' – a combo of slow-cooked ham hock, fried egg, piccalilli and shoestring fries wedged between freshly baked focaccia – and the Et Tu Brute? which is filled with poached chicken, pickled grape and tarragon salsa, chicory, baby gem, garlic croutons and anchovy mayo. To recreate the magic at home, check out Max’s book.

Visit MaxsSandwichShop.com

Dom’s Subs

East London

 

The excellently named Dom’s Subs has swiftly become a lunchtime legend. Across locations at 262 Hackney Road, 8 Ludgate Circus and 7 Cullum Street, the team is famed for its homemade semolina sub rolls, which are generously filled with bold ingredients. Available for collection or delivery, sub combos on offer include the Habibi Club (homemade smoked turkey breast, swiss cheese, shrettuce and guacachile) and a meatball marinara that uses beef from Hill & Szrok. They can rustle up party platters if you’re in need of en-masse sustenance, and they also do a decent line of merch.

Visit ImpeccableSandwiches.co.uk

Rogue Sarnies

Bethnal Green & South Bank

 

Rogue Sarnies is no longer one of the capital’s best-kept secrets for next-level sandwiches. The two founders met working at Galvin La Chapelle, began hosting pop-ups on the side and quickly decided it was the direction they wanted to head in. A few lockdowns later – plus some viral creations such as a sausage and black pudding crumpet sandwich and slow-poached egg and smoked cheddar bun – the duo went permanent in Bethnal Green in 2023, and now have a site at Between Two Bridges on the South Bank. Today’s menu is a masterclass in bold combinations: the ‘OG Marmite Cheesy’ combines camembert, mozzarella, parmesan and sticky marmite glaze. We also rate the ‘Lord Nelson’ – sticky braised beef shin and caramelised onions, roasted beef topside drenched in gravy, pickled BBQ onions, horseradish cream and landcress.

Visit RogueSarnies.uk

Eric’s

East Dulwich

 

Eric’s is an independent bakery founded by former Flor head baker Helen Evans. The minimalist, yellow spot opens only on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays – and the queues start early. Known for its exceptional sourdough, buttery viennoiserie and seasonal bakes (we can’t get enough of the confit potato scrolls), Eric’s has also carved out a niche for its elevated sandwiches, which are sold on Thursdays from 10.30am until they sell out. Built on the bakery’s signature tangy sourdough, the sandwiches use British produce and homemade condiments – a current hit is wild garlic pesto, tomatoes and baked Sussex sheep’s milk ricotta.

Visit EricsLondon.com

 

Paul Rothe & Son

Marylebone

 

Established in 1900, this family run deli and sandwich shop started out selling solely German produce but expanded to offer a range of European and British goods post-World War II. Today, the café-deli is known for its hearty, plate-filling sandwiches, as well as a cracking soup of the day. On the sandwich front, we like to keep things simple with a door-stopping egg mayo with chives and anchovies on brown bread. Make sure to peruse the honeys, chutneys and pickled bits and bobs; the cured meats – particularly the pastrami – are also a must-try.

Visit @PaulRotheAndson

Panzer’s

St John’s Wood

 

Since 1944, this iconic Jewish spot in St John’s Wood has been serving ‘everything’ bagels, salt beef sandwiches, and hearty chicken soup with matzo balls. It recently marked its 80th birthday with a refurb that’s deeply rooted in its history as a NYC-inspired deli. While it’s new sushi counter and pizza station are impressive, not much can tear us away from the original, incredibly filled, smoked salmon bagels. 

Visit Panzers.co.uk

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London (Ontario Canada) woman off insulin for Type 1 diabetes after a single dose of experimental manufactured stem cells

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/article/woman-off-insulin-for-type-1-diabetes-after-a-single-dose-of-experimental-manufactured-stem-cells/

Amanda Smith celebrates the day, August 1, nearly two years ago, when she stopped taking insulin to manage her type one diabetes, just a few months after getting a dose of experimental stem cells as part of a study.

“I remember, like, being scared and excited, and it’s history now,” she said.

The 36-year-old nurse and mother is part of a small, but what some call “milestone study,” of patients with Type 1 Diabetes using manufactured stem cells, designed to grow in the liver and become the full array of pancreatic islet cells that naturally control blood sugar levels.

In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers report that of the 12 patients who received a single dose of the stem cells, it eliminated the need for insulin in 10 for at least a year and stopped episodes of low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia, which can lead to dangerous complications, even death. For Amanda, the treatment has been a blessing.

Diagnosed with late-onset juvenile diabetes when she was 25, she was plagued with sudden bouts of low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia that would leave her faint, despite close monitoring. The risk was a diabetic coma or worse.

“I get emotional because I’m free from those handcuffs ... I don’t have that looming over me every day,” she said from her home in London, Ont.

“I took it as a death sentence,” she said. “I knew, eventually, like the end is always some sort of complication with diabetes,” she said.

“We’ve ... dealt with a lot of patients that have struggled with diabetes. And to be able to see such a transformational change in their life is just amazing,” said Dr. Trevor Reichman, the lead author and the Surgical Director of the Pancreas and Islet Cell Transplant Program at the University Health Network in Toronto.

Vertex, a Boston-based biotech company that sponsored the study, derived the cells from embryonic tissue and then found a way to grow stem cells in large quantities.

Researchers, working at centers in the U.S. and at least three transplant hospitals in Canada, infused them into the patient’s liver. Over the next four to six months, Reichman said they transformed into the array of hormone-producing cells found in a normal pancreas, and they were monitoring the patients’ blood sugar levels in real time.

“In the liver, they’re sensing a patient’s blood glucose level, and they’re secreting the appropriate hormone,” said Reichman. adding that these biological replacements appear to sense changes in “seconds or milliseconds. Essentially, it’s the same as your native islet cells would function.”

“I think the data is just so very exciting, so very, very powerful,” said Dr. Peter Senior, director of the Alberta Diabetes Institute at the University of Alberta. He was not part of this study.

“The primary objective of the study was just to show that the blood sugars were better and that people were not having severe hypoglycemia. They blew past that. Ten of the 12 people are off insulin,” said Senior.

“It’s never been done before in history” said Dr. Michael Thompson, director of Vancouver General Diabetes Centre. “It’s first time they a have achieved a high enough levels of insulin in patients,” using a stem cell product.

“It’s a big advance” he added.

But there’s a tradeoff. The patients, however, require immune-suppressing drugs for life, so that the immune system doesn’t destroy the cells.

There are risks to these immunosuppressive medications, including a higher risk of some cancers, infections, and high blood pressure. Amanda says it is nothing like her constant terror that she might slip into a sudden diabetic coma.

“Taking a couple of pills three times a day is nothing. I take it with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s easy. No comparison, none,” she said. “And I know it’s a huge relief for my family, especially my husband, that’s for sure.”

The study also reports that two patients in the study died, one likely as a result of complications from that immunosuppression, which Dr. Reichman says underscores the need for patients to be closely monitored at experienced transplant centers. A second patient, according to the study, died of severe dementia.

Off-the-shelf live cell therapy

The idea of using cells implanted in the body to produce insulin, instead of insulin injections, began in Canada 25 years ago. Researchers in Alberta pioneered the Edmonton Protocol. It uses insulin-producing islet cells removed from deceased organ donors that are implanted into those with hard-to-manage Type 1 Diabetes.

Some 2,500 patients have been treated around the world, according to the University of Alberta, which reports 80 per cent were able to stop taking insulin injections for a median time of 95 days.

But the number of procedures is limited because there aren’t enough organ donors to meet the demand, and patients also require long-term immune suppression.

So, there have been some two dozen companies around the world looking at other ways of getting manufactured islet cells to regulate blood sugar as a replacement for insulin. The Vertex cells, originally called VX-880, have been renamed Zimislecel. The Boston-based pharmaceutical company says it is ramping up production.

“These are fresh, brand-new cells – they’re not 60-year-old cells that have already had a life, and we’re repurposing them,” said Senior, who works in Edmonton. It pushes the boundary of therapy forward because there is the potential to create a renewable source of insulin-producing cells instead of waiting for cells from deceased donors,” he added.

“I think we’ve got a treatment for diabetes where we are no longer constrained by organ donors,” said Senior. “We’ve got potentially a limitless source of cells that could be used, and that is a massively huge step forward in terms of a cell therapy becoming a reality.”

The next step is for someone to produce stem cells that don’t require immune suppression, by either genetically engineering the cells or encapsulating them to make them invisible to immune attack. Several pilot studies are underway.

It’s a welcome advance, according to Senior. While insulin therapy has been a lifesaver for many since its discovery in Toronto by Banting and Best in 1921, it’s never been a cure.

“I think people with diabetes deserve some of the transformative treatments we’ve seen in cancer and other diseases but we’ve been stuck essentially doing the same thing for 100 years,” said Senior.

In Canada, there are some 300000 people with Type 1 diabetes. Thirty-two new cases are diagnosed each day.

The number of new cases per year increased by 34 per cent between 2000 and 2022, according to Breakthrough T1D (formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation of Canada).

Unlike Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to environmental, dietary, and genetic factors, the exact cause of Type 1 diabetes is still unknown, but doctors say the immune system mistakenly attacks insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas, resulting in a gradual decline in the availability of insulin to regulate blood sugar.

Questions remain

The study is being continued to include a total of 50 patients, in Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto and the U.S., with Dr. Reichman’s team actively recruiting candidates.

There are still many questions. Dr. Reichman admits that no one knows how long these implanted cells will last. Amanda hasn’t required any insulin injections for almost two years, the longest documented period so far. He adds there are no signs that the other nine, who also went off insulin, have gone back on the injections since their stem cell infusion.

Unclear also is whether this therapy will reduce the longer-term and burdensome complications of diabetes, including heart problems, amputations, kidney failure, and vision loss. However, data from patients treated with the Edmonton protocol, using tissue from deceased donors, show signs of reduced complications, a promising sign for the newer therapy, according to Dr. Thompson.

The other concern is that not all patients with severe hypoglycemia may want to make the same choice as Amanda, swapping the diabetes risks for those that come with the anti-rejection medications.

“Taking a couple of pills three times a day is nothing. It’s easy. There’s no comparison, none,” she said.

Another question is that a single treatment therapy for this disease could come with a very high price tag. “We’ll have to wait and see,” said Reichman.

Amanda Smith, meanwhile, tries to enjoy her freedom with her family and her work at a long-term care home, without thinking too far ahead.

“What happens if the cells stop working or something? You know, I just try and live right now, and I feel so blessed.”

She debates the question - does she have diabetes anymore?

“I don’t take any insulin anymore. I don’t take medication for diabetes anymore. So, I feel like a regular person again without diabetes.”

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Grab A Bargain

BAO Turns 10

 

BAO is celebrating ten years in the game by reverting to its 2014 prices. Until 10th July, you can snap up classic buns – pork belly, beef short rib, vegan daikon – for just £3.50 a pop. Plus, there’s a new menu: charcoal-fried chicken steak with BBQ glaze, calamari bao, and the freshly invented ‘baonut’. Go early, go hungry.

Various locations

Visit BaoLondon.com

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_McMahon

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0573037/

 

Julian Dana William McMahon (27 July 1968 – 2 July 2025) was an Australian-American actor. He was the only son of Sir William McMahon, a former Prime Minister of Australia.

 

Edited July 4 by KEVINAA

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If you’re gonna make a Daiquiri, go with a recipe from a 250-year-old rum brand

A rum and sun soaked drink for summertime

https://www.themanual.com/food-and-drink/how-to-make-an-appleton-estate-daiquiri-cocktail/

‘Tis the season for hammock naps and long meandering walks on the sand. Can’t get to the beach? That’s okay, we’ve got a great three ingredient cocktail that will transport you there.

The Daiquiri is a classic, built around little more than the ideal pairing of rum and citrus. When dialed-in, the tropical drink is one of the best in the business. If palm fronds and sea breezes could be put into a cocktail glass, well, this recipe would be it.

Granted, there are no shortage of good Daiquiri recipes out there. One from Appleton Estate is a little different, as it borrows from more than 250 years in the rum-making business. In short, the outfit knows a thing or two about a great rum cocktail.

Read on for a taste straight from Jamaica.

The Jamaican Daiquiri

Appleton Estate

Rum, fresh citrus, a little simple. That’s all it takes to showcase an excellent spirit. And if you prefer things on the dryer side, skip the simple altogether.

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces Appleton Estate Signature
• 1 ounce fresh lime juice
• 1/2 ounce simple syrup

Method:

1. Combine ingredients in a shaker tin, add ice and shake.
2. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with lime wedge.

While we’re on the topic, check out our Hawaiian rum guide. The Rainbow State is turning out some excellent stuff and it’s time to take notice. Here’s to a breezy summer.

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The best heat wave-approved wines to enjoy this summer — and it’s not just whites

Here's what should be in your wine glass when the mercury soars

https://www.themanual.com/food-and-drink/the-best-heat-wave-wines/

Summer is officially here, meaning school’s out, the pool’s packed, and there’s going to be a heat wave (or three). That means the need for refreshment will be at an all-time high. And while we love a good frozen cocktail or ice cold lager, we’re not hanging up our wine glass just because the thermometer is reading 90 F.

We know, it’s temping to just throw ’em all in the fridge not matter the varietal. That, or just treat your glass to some ice or frozen fruit before pouring the wine in. But there’s a better way. Some wines do better on the cool side than others, and we’re here to break ’em down for you.

Here are some captivating wine options for the hottest time of the year. And no, they’re not all sparkling wines and whites.

Pet-Nat

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Pet-Net is essentially the lighter version of sparkling that does oh so well with hot weather favorites like oysters and prosciutto-wrapped melon. More and more domestic producers are trying their hands at the style, popular now thanks to a significant interest in leaner wines. These wines tend to have a bit of intriguing funk to them and are so, so fresh.

Melon

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Originally from France where it’s known as Muscadet, Melon has a decent presence here in the states. This bright and light-as-a-feather white is all you need in the cooler, preferably plus some ceviche. A couple of great domestic options include De Ponte Cellars and Helioterra Wines. If you can’t locate those, you should be able to get locate some French options at your local bottle shop. Do as the French do and pair it up with goat cheese or mussels.

Etna Bianco

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Sicily knows all about hot weather and these native white blends are perfect for a picnic. Etna Bianco takes advantage of rich volcanic soil and tends to produce aromatic wines with lots of depth on the palate. Carricante is one of the main grapes and what you get in the glass is a healthy slice of the Mediterranean, in the form of citrus, fresh herbs, minerality and a little bit of sea air. Enjoy just the wine or try some with southern Italian staples like arancini, grilled veggies, or lighter pastas.

Dry Riesling

Gladston Joseph / Gladston Joseph

Thriving in cool climate areas like northern Europe and Oregon, Riesling offers a bracing acidity that can chill you to the bone. Go with a dry and chilled option more times than not, unless you’re pairing it up with spicy food, in which case an off-dry option can balance out the heat with a little residual sugar. Great options are coming out of both coasts in the U.S. at the moment, with the Long Island area in particular worth seeking out.

Chilled Gamay Noir

Image used with permission by copyright holder

One of the lightest reds around loves a good chill and some cold cut meats. Seek out some from the west coast, in cooler growing areas like the Willamette Valley or higher-elevation California American Viticultural Areas. The varietal is always juicy, an unctuous option that performs like a complex fruit punch for adults. The red fruit flavors go great with proteins like turkey. Even a slight chill, like the temp of your wine fridge or just a short spell in the regular fridge is enough to make this wine very inviting on a warm day.

New hybrid wines

Quadronet_Webdesign / Pixabay

Domestic producers are blending white and red varietals for some refreshing results. The results, like this chill-able red wine from Landmass, can be quite mesmerizing. The style fuses red and white wine, with the nuance of the former and the drinkability of the latter. Keep a bottle in your fridge at the ready this summer.

Keep ’em cool

Kichigin / Shutterstock

There are intelligent ways to keep your wine cool. After all, cold is not really what you’re after unless it’s super hot outside. An over-chilled wine will rob it of its aromatics and flavors. Go with the 20-minute rule if you’re keeping wine in the fridge. In other words, pull the wine out and let it set at room temperature for 20 minutes before cracking. Some wines, like most sparkling, is just fine on ice.

If you’re traveling with wine, even if just to the local beach or park, you’ll want to keep it cool as well. There are expensive gadgets for such a thing which you’re more than welcome to explore. Otherwise, go with what you might already have. You can wrap a bottle in a cooling compression sleeve or even rubber band an ice pack to the bottle for short trips. Wine chiller sticks can be effective too, basically cold wands that you dip into the wine.

We’re all-in when it comes to summer. Check out our related features on the best Sauvignon Blanc and pairing sushi and wine, an ultra-refreshing pair if there ever was one. Stay cool this summer, people.

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RIP🕯️

Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath frontman and icon of British heavy metal, dies aged 76

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jul/22/ozzy-osbourne-black-sabbath-frontman-and-icon-of-british-heavy-metal-dies-aged-76

The singer, who later became famous on reality TV show The Osbournes, dies less than three weeks after retirement concert

Ozzy Osbourne, whose gleeful “Prince of Darkness” image made him one of the most iconic rock frontmen of all time, has died aged 76.

A statement from the Osbourne family reads: “It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.” No cause of death was given, though Osbourne had experienced various forms of ill health in recent years.

Osbourne was one of the most notorious figures in rock: an innovator whose eerie wail helped usher in heavy metal, a showman who once bit the head off a bat on stage, an addict whose substance abuse led him to attempt to murder his wife, and latterly, a reality TV star much loved for his bemusement at family life on The Osbournes.

His death comes less than three weeks after his retirement from performance. On 5 July, Osbourne reunited with his original bandmates in the pioneering group Black Sabbath for the first time since 2005, for Back to the Beginning: an all-star farewell concert featuring some of the biggest names in metal. “I’ve been laid up for six years, and you’ve got no idea how I feel,” he told the crowd that night, referring to extensive health issues including a form of Parkinson’s and numerous surgeries on his spine. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

He was born John Michael Osbourne in Aston, Birmingham, in 1948, the son of a pair of factory workers. He had a tough upbringing. As well as living in relative poverty, aged 11 he was repeatedly sexually abused by two boys: “It was terrible … It seemed to go on for ever,” he told the Mirror in 2003. He was also jailed for burglary: “I was no good at that. Fucking useless,” he admitted in 2014.

This industrial working-class environment fed into the sound of Osbourne’s defining musical project, Black Sabbath, whose heavy sound revolutionised British rock music. “We wanted to put how we thought about the world at the time,” the band’s bassist, Geezer Butler, said in 2017. “We didn’t want to write happy pop songs. We gave that industrial feeling to it.”

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The SL Guide To Marylebone

Minutes from Oxford Street and home to some our favourite brands and independent boutiques, there are many reasons why Marylebone remains one of London’s most popular shopping and dining destinations. Offering a picturesque setting full of period architecture and green spaces, here are the places to stay, see and shop…

https://slman.com/culture/best-restaurants-marylebone

WHERE TO EAT & DRINK

 

Marylebone has always been a great place to eat. But a flurry of recent openings from some of the best restaurant groups in the capital has cemented its status. A couple of years ago, St John opened its third site on Marylebone Lane. Like the original, expect the same white-washed walls and nose-to-tail dining experience. We like to book a table at the window and watch the world go by with a glass of manzanilla as we order deep-dried rarebit (which comes with a bottle of Lea & Perrins on the side), middle white belly and anchovies, and a plate of made-to-order madeleines to take away. Earlier this year, Claude Bosi’s buzzy Lyonnaise bouchon Josephine launched an offshoot in a gorgeous space in Marylebone. Make sure to order the white asparagus and mousseline sauce; delicate cheese ravioli with parsley; and black leg chicken with morels, followed by the showstopping banana split. 

The team behind the ever-popular Zephyr and Bottarga launched Nina earlier this year to even more acclaim. In Marylebone, the team has turned its attention to Italy, with emphasis on the joys of communal dining and the laboured simplicity of Italian cooking. Expect a raw menu with crudo, carpaccio and tartare, plus an excellent selection of pasta – think beef shin fazzoletti in red wine sauce; spaghetti in a rich, tomato sauce with stracciatella; and bottarga linguine served under a mound of bluefin tuna tartare. Finally, Angela Hartnett is opening her fourth Café Murano on Dorset Street at the end of this month.

As well as old favourites like the above, there are some essential newer names to know. Top of that list is Lita. The intimate Marylebone bistro – headed up by chef Luke Ahearne – was recently awarded its first Michelin star. Dishes celebrate bold, seasonal flavours with a contemporary edge – think bucatini cacio e pepe with sourdough pangrattato; mafaldine with pistachio pesto and smoked burrata; and Cornish pollock with Jerusalem artichoke and roast chicken butter. New for summer there’s a lovely sun-dappled terrace that complements the restaurant’s gorgeous interiors. Then there’s AngloThai. After years of residencies, John and Desiree Chantarasak finally opened a bricks-and-mortar restaurant at the end of last year. The Marylebone restaurant took just three months to win a Michelin star  – standout dishes include lion’s mane mushroom and sunflower seed satay; monkfish jungle curry with holy basil; and hogget massaman and black fig. Make sure to book a table at Noreen too. This new Middle Eastern restaurant offers a refined take on mezzes and fire-licked meats. It’s headed up by Mehdi Hani, the former chef at Em Sherif at Harrods and The Dorchester, who draws from his Syrian/Lebanese heritage to serve up the likes of hummus shortrib and cardamon milk buns with whipped butter and date molasses.  

Cavita

 

Noreen

 

A year ago, Andre Balazs’s Chiltern Firehouse would have been top of this list. Balazs’s third site after Chateau Marmont in Hollywood and the Mercer hotel in NYC, the celebrity hotspot sadly suffered a fire in February 2025. It was an SL favourite for the ultimate weekend brunch: think ‘Flaming Benedicts’, which came with crispy potato cakes and jalapeño hollandaise; black truffle scrambled eggs; and lobster and crab omelettes. These days, if we’re after brunch, we’ll grab a elite sandwich from Paul Rothe & Son. Established in 1900, this family run deli and sandwich shop started out selling solely German produce but expanded to offer a range of European and British goods post-World War II. Today, the café-deli is known for its hearty, plate-filling sandwiches. We like to keep things simple with a door-stopping egg mayo with chives and anchovies on brown bread.

The ever-excellent Kol is one of the most interesting fine-dining restaurants in the country. From Mexican chef Santiago Lastra, who now also has the more casual Fonda on Heddon Street, Kol underwent a refresh earlier this month. There’s now a new dessert and drinks experience where the lower-ground floor mezcal bar was, plus a five-course lunch menu (Wednesday-Friday), where guests can enjoy a condensed version of the classic Kol tasting menu. Fresh dishes for summer 2025 include strawberry taco with seaweed and pumpkin seed dip; and a reimagined chilomole with fermented chillis and ash oil. If you love Mexican food, also try Cavita by Adriana Cavita. Another spot with a great cocktail bar and mezcaleria in the basement, the bar showcases the best of Mexican mezcal and tequila, where guests can choose from various flights to try out different agave-based spirits.

Lita

 

Nina

 

Marylebone has plenty of options if you’re in the mood for excellent South Asian food. Another award-winning eatery from the Sethi family (who also look after Gymkhana and Taiwanese dumpling house Bao, which also has a Marylebone spot), Hoppers is one of the best Sri Lankan restaurants in London, named after one of Sri Lanka’s popular dishes – egg-topped pancakes. Unlike the original Soho restaurant, Hoppers in St Christopher’s takes bookings for dinner, and offers four semi-private dining vaults for groups of eight. Try the ‘Taste of Hoppers’ sharing menu to avoid food FOMO and sample the kitchen’s highlights. 

Ravinder Bhogal launched pretty-in-pink Jikoni in 2016, drawing on her Kenyan and Indian heritage to fuse dishes from her travels and her childhood, and create a delicious hybrid menu. Combinations on offer include prawn toast scotch egg with banana ketchup and pickled cucumbers; scorched peaches with tofu, lime leaf gremolata and peanut brittle; Kesar mango and golden coin curry thali; and Ravinder’s famous banana cake with miso butterscotch, peanut brittle and Ovaltine kulfi. And finally, Trishna delivers a contemporary taste of Indian coastal cuisine, with a heavy focus on seafood. The informal and pared-back aesthetic of the interiors, offset with antique mirrors, marble tabletops and original wooden panelling, offers a neighbourhood atmosphere, with terrace doors that open onto Blandford Street, creating a semi al fresco ambience throughout the restaurant. Side note: if seafood is your thing, check out Greek fin-to-gill restaurant Kima, which offers a beautifully refined take on surf and turf.

If Japanese food is more your thing, book a spot at Roketsu, which launched its first site in London a couple of years ago. The restaurant is made up of just ten seats at the counter, making this an intimate experience. Food is served in the traditional ‘Kaiseki’ style, a ten-course set menu that revolves around dashi. Each sitting lasts three hours and current menu highlights include Cornish ikejime seabass with lobster, yuzu and Japanese mustard; and Cornish crab with pear, air-dried onion, carrot, fennel, yuzu and dill. We also really rate Taka, which serves a small plate-led menu, focusing on hot and grilled dishes and sushi. Sharers include a yakitori omakase – a whole chicken broken down and grilled over hot coals to create a complete nose-to-tail eating experience. The selection of sushi focuses on quirky adaptations of long-standing favourites, such as kagoshima A5 wagyu sukiyaki with onsen eggs, and popcorn shrimp with daikon salad.

Jikoni

 

 

Wallace Collection

 

From the outside, French-leaning wine bar Clarette looks like an old Tudor pub: picture black and white beams and stained glass. But within, the townhouse has had a thoroughly modern makeover – the seating is pink, there’s plenty of exposed brickwork and statement lighting abounds. For a proper pub experience, we love The Coach Maker’s Arms from Cubitt House – the group behind London institutions like The Princess Royal in Notting Hill, The Builder’s Arms in Chelsea and Mayfair’s The Barley Mow. The pub itself is a stunner, but we love to book a table in its pretty upstairs dining room for an elite Sunday lunch.

For some old-school glamour, book a table at Fischer’s. Part of The Wolseley Group, it’s an informal neighbourhood café with a classic Viennese menu. The space is evocative of early 20th-century Vienna and is open for breakfast until late: the menu includes a huge choice of cured fish, salads, strudels, ice-cream coupes, hot chocolates and coffees with traditional tortes. Another tried-and-tested classic is Orrery, which has long combined high-end classic French cookery with a relaxed neighbourhood vibe. We love its smart floor-to-ceiling oval windows and its famously well-stocked cheese trolley. Our menu picks include saffron risotto croquettes with pesto, followed by turbot with braised cabbage, beurre blanc and oscietra caviar. Come summertime, you’ll find us on the plant-filled terrace.

WHERE TO SHOP & VISIT

 

The eastern half of Church Street is filled with antique shops – many of them run by dealers who started at Alfies Antique Market – and it’s now one of the best enclaves for antiques in London. For more than 40 years, Alfies has attracted serious collectors, interior designers and celebrities to its vast and varied collection of art, antiques, jewellery and fashion. Across four floors of one-offs and genuine treasures, it is one of the largest and longest-running arcades of its kind in the country – and is well worth a post-lunch peruse.

Orrery

 

There’s a reason Daunt Books tote bags are spotted all over the capital. With five shops in London and one in Oxford, it’s the place to go to for a traditional book buying experience – and we’re a fan of its beautiful Marylebone site, which is always full of people taking Insta snaps of its interiors. If you’re not sure what to buy, check out its subscription service, which sends subscribers a new title every month, according to their tastes. If your idea of a great Saturday is browsing delis and food markets, pay Green Valley a visit. Established in 1986, it’s London’s largest and best-stocked Lebanese and Middle Eastern food hall (ideal if you’ve got an Ottolenghi book to be broken in). Starting out as a small shop on the same premises, it’s now grown to become a real treasure trove of ingredients and cookware.

There are countless fashion stores along Marylebone High Street. One of the area’s best independent boutiques is Kj’s Laundry, which focuses on niche, under-the-radar brands and is known for introducing new and exciting labels to the UK: think Ulla Johnson, Hope-Sthlm, Humanoid and Filippa K alongside cult favourites such as Samantha Sung, Sessun, Xirena and Masscob. We also really rate Mouki Mou on Chiltern Street, which stocks lesser-known brands mainly from Japan and the US. For menswear, look no further than Trunk Clothiers, the Chiltern Street boutique which carefully curates the very best fashion from Japan, the US and further afield.

When you’ve exhausted the shops, make sure to leave time for a quick visit to the Wallace Collection. Tucked behind Oxford Street, this 18th-century townhouse contains an impressive selection of paintings, sculpture, furniture and porcelain – all shown against a backdrop of beautiful original interiors. Filled with natural light and dotted with trees and sculptures, the Wallace restaurant offers al fresco-style dining protected from both the elements and the crowds of the West End, and it’s a great spot for afternoon tea or a light lunch.

Treehouse Hotel

 

WHERE TO SLEEP

 

Discreetly occupying a Grade II-listed townhouse on Upper Berkeley Street, Henry’s Townhouse was once owned by Jane Austen’s brother. It is widely thought that Jane’s visits to Henry in London were of great value, for it was through his support that her work was published. A design collaboration between owners Jane and Steven Collins and the award-winning Russell Sage Studio, Henry’s is an intelligent and glamorous re-imagining of the Regency period, featuring an array of carefully chosen colour palettes, abundant fabrics and beautiful furnishings – think modern four-poster beds, roll-top baths and antiques and artwork that tell a story. In all, there are seven lovely bedrooms, along with a reading room – where complimentary aperitifs are served each evening – plus the Carriage Snug, where guests can mix up a cocktail and play backgammon. Downstairs, you’ll find the kitchen and pantry, where we had one of the best breakfasts we can remember. Best of all, the townhouse is run almost like a lovely family home, with someone on hand to look after you as much or as little as you like. 

The BoTree opened its doors in September and fast established itself as a West End hotspot. The first opening from luxury group Place III Hotels, there are 199 chicly colourful rooms including 30 suites, all offering different views of London. The Soho Suites (with views over Henrietta Place and Welbeck Street) have spacious separate living areas and free-standing baths and all come with Jo Loves toiletries and Jasper Conran Wedgewood tea sets. Tao Group Hospitality (the same group behind Hakkasan and Yauatcha) is behind the hotel’s food and drink. Its signature restaurant Lavo serves elegant Italian dishes in a sophisticated but relaxed dining room – make sure to order the tagliatelle al limone infused with marjoram, sweet butter and kaluga caviar.

As well as newer hotels, Marylebone is home to some impressive mainstays. One of the oldest railway hotels in London, The Landmark London is a magnificent five-star hotel and has remained an icon for over 120 years. With 300 bedrooms and 51 suites, the hotel has some impressive restaurants: a stunning eight-storey glass atrium is home to the Winter Garden, which serves a modern European menu and a popular afternoon tea. The Mirror Bar is a great spot for late-night drinks and the hotel spa features a huge health club, treatment rooms and 15m chlorine-free indoor swimming pool. Opened in 1865 as Europe’s first ‘grand hotel’, The Langham underwent an extensive transformation a few years back, and now offers a selection of luxurious guestrooms and suites. Best of all, its bars and restaurants include the award-winning Palm Court, Artesian Bar and the Wigmore, all overseen by Michel Roux Jr. Elsewhere, its Chuan Spa Body + Soul is London’s first luxury hotel spa to incorporate the ancient principles of traditional Chinese medicine into its signature treatments.

Henry’s Townhouse

 

The BoTree

 

Like the original in Clerkenwell, Zetter Townhouse in Marylebone is an independent boutique hotel full of personality. On Seymour Street, the 24-bedroom Georgian townhouse and cocktail lounge offers non-guests a great selection of cocktails and small plates in atmospheric, antiques-laden Seymour’s Parlour, so this is well worth bookmarking even if you don’t need a bed for the night. 

Thought you had to leave London to find an idyllic treehouse getaway? Not so. All rooms at Treehouse Hotel are perched high in the city skyline and feature big bay windows that look out to some of London’s most iconic landmarks. The Backyard coffee/wine bar feels just like a real treehouse thanks to the exposed wood décor, while the rooftop Nest bar offers 360° views of the city. Think cocktails, swing seats and DJs working the decks – all from a luxe treehouse fort.

If you want to stay right in the centre of Marylebone Village, book a room at The Marylebone, which is a short walk from Oxford Street, Bond Street and Mayfair. Like the group’s other properties – The Bloomsbury and The Kensington – the hotel’s stylishly designed guest rooms and suites offer modern, art-filled spaces. Our pick would be one of its impressive rooftop terrace suites. The 249-bedroom Nobu Hotel London Portman Square sits on a prominent corner of Marylebone. Like other Nobu properties, the hotel showcases traditional Japanese architectural details and offers a high-end but relaxed stay. Naturally, there’s also a Nobu restaurant – which serves all Nobu Matsuhisa’s culinary classics – plus a pretty bar and impressive outdoor terrace. On a more affordable end of the scale, The Prince Akatori is another Japan-led hotel in Marybone. Expect gorgeously stripped-back interiors and excellent nightcaps in its Malt Room.

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Bonnie Blue: 1,000 men and the worrying normalisation of porn

Bonnie Blue, 26, is the Gen Z Brit who earned £1.5 million a month posting footage online of her having sex with multiple men, with controversial stunts targeting university students. Janice Turner meets the most notorious woman on the internet

https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/sex-relationships/article/bonnie-blue-interview-1000-men-normalisation-porn-dd6rcq8gq

Tia Billinger, aka Bonnie Blue: “It’s going to be difficult when I’m ready to date again, because of what I do”

TOM JACKSON FOR THE TIMES MAGAZINE

 

If you’ve never heard of Bonnie Blue, ask your teenage kids, the guys down the pub, your female colleagues. In fact, anyone with a social media account. They may respond with disgust or lurid fascination, but I guarantee they’ll have an opinion on this outwardly ordinary 26-year-old from Derbyshire, who claims that on January 11, within a 12-hour period, she had sex with 1,057 men.

This purported world record — one that goes undocumented by Guinness — begs many questions. How did she do it, given that’s 41 seconds per man not including changeovers? What was the physical toll? What childhood trauma led her to relish such gross public degradation?

Because let’s be clear, what Bonnie Blue does is by most standards extreme: in videos her small, slight, naked body is passed like a toy between multiple men who take turns penetrating her mouth and vagina, often at the same time. She kneels attending to a whole circle of penises, working manically in rotation like a music hall plate-spinner. Occasionally the men slap or choke or urinate on her: sometimes she gags and retches or looks overwhelmed by this sexual feeding frenzy. Unlike most porn stars, she doesn’t bother to fake orgasms: she is there not to receive but to provide pleasure for men who conclude by ejaculating on her face.

From a social media post in January

@BONNIE_BLUE_XOX/INSTAGRAM

And yet Bonnie Blue — now the subject of a Channel 4 documentary — is mainstream. You don’t need Pornhub to watch her: you can scroll unexpurgated clips of her “events” on X. Meanwhile, on Instagram and TikTok she posts nonstop wholesome scenes from her life: Bonnie with her fluffy dog; on a beach in a bikini; hungover eating lunch. The notion is she’s a normal girl who simply loves doing porn, and not just with other professionals. If you are a man, any man, “barely legal or barely breathing”, just turn up, join a queue and she’ll do you, although her preference is for 18-year-old virgins recruited at college freshers events. (A clip of one mother turning up to drag her son home went viral: “Where’s your coat?” she demands furiously. But it’s too late; he’s already had his go.)

Bonnie is where the influencer economy meets the porn industry: horny teen boys get free sex with a famous girl in exchange for filming content that she monetises to earn millions. Her queue of men has been compared to strangers recruited online to rape a drugged Gisèle Pelicot, but I’m reminded too of lines you see outside any Instagram-famous shop or café: screwing Bonnie is about sex, but also participating in a craze.

Is Bonnie, as she insists, an “empowered” woman, the ultimate expression of female bodily autonomy? Andrew Tate has described her as “the perfect end result of feminism”, and certainly “sex-positive” feminism has long valorised sex work, which must make Bonnie, coolly getting rich on gangbangs, a modern Emmeline Pankhurst or Germaine Greer. In any case, the results of our global experiment in exposing children to pornography before their first kiss is now here in human form.

From Tia to Bonnie

Her real name is Tia Billinger and we speak at the Times offices, where someone has booked us a glass-fronted room in the newsroom, meaning a constant stream of curious journalists flows by. She wears a pink Balmain minidress chosen by her Italian stylist, Ermes, but otherwise she looks like any nice, well-groomed twentysomething: luxuriant hair, shaped brows, natural make-up and nails, an athletic 5ft 3in figure, no boob job or tattoos or piercings, sweet face, veneered smile, grey-blue eyes with a fiercely direct gaze, which her right-hand man and videographer, Josh, calls her “death stare”.

I felt I was interviewing two people. Tia, the bright, funny, polite northern girl who loves her family, crafting, pets and Netflix, is occasionally possessed by lewd, crude Bonnie. Beyond our room is a Sunday Times leaving do. “Does he want a farewell blow job?” she asks. Er, I think it’s a woman.

She grew up in Draycott, a village between Derby and Nottingham, the sort of place, she says, “where your parents are neighbours with people they went to school with, and they live two minutes down the road from their parents. Which is nice, but it’s as if you can’t leave.” Her father was a welder who repaired railway tracks, working long hours often away from home. Her mother stayed home looking after Tia and her sister, then worked as a childminder, shop assistant and nursing home carer.

It was a warm, close, loving childhood. Tia and her sister were crazy about dancing, taking nine classes a week of tap, ballet and freestyle, and in 2015 they took part in the British street dance championships. School bored her, but she thought about becoming a midwife until she saw that after four years’ training she’d be on £21,000. She was already earning that aged 16 by teaching dance and working in Poundstretcher. So she dropped out of A-levels, “not because I didn’t have a good work ethic. Quite the opposite; I wanted to work. I was hungry. I wanted to earn money. University would only have slowed my life down.”

• Why you should watch sex scenes with your children

So she worked in recruitment, “a glamorised call-centre sales job” placing finance assistants and accountants mainly within the NHS. She did that from 7.30am to 6pm for five years. “I felt like my life got so serious so quickly. My friends were still talking about missing homework while I was thinking, ‘I need to find a finance director for Derby Hospital.’ ”

Articulate and engaging, she was good at her job and it brought material success: by 19 she drove a Mercedes C-class. She’d met her boyfriend, Ollie, a private-school boy, at a New Year’s Eve party when she was 15. They bought a house and were saving for a lavish wedding. Yet Tia was still deeply dissatisfied. “I kept thinking, ‘Is that all there is?’ The desire to leave your home town is quite strong, isn’t it?” In older friends she saw her life mapped out: a kitchen extension, one nice holiday a year, 20 days’ leave, yearning for Fridays to come around. She wondered if a baby would help, but she wasn’t pregnant after 18 months of trying and tests revealed it would be hard for her to conceive.

So once lockdown ended, she and Ollie, an estate agent, sold their house and cars, had a register office wedding in February 2022 and moved to Australia’s Gold Coast. Here material things mattered less, “because when you open your back doors, you’ve got the most beautiful beach and you get a cheap lilo from the corner shop”. A planned gap year turned into two. Then family and friends told her it was time to find a job. “They said, ‘You’ve had the best two years of your life.’ And that sentence was the biggest wake-up call, because I thought, yes, they were good years, but surely can’t be the best of my whole life.”

Tia created her Bonnie Blue alter ego when she began performing in front of a camera online

TOM JACKSON FOR THE TIMES MAGAZINE

‘My first time as a cam girl, I was so nervous’

Resuming the nine-to-five filled her with dread and she’d noticed on TikTok “women, all different shapes and sizes and backgrounds, were getting extra money doing camming online”. Cam girls talk with and perform for men online. The first five minutes are free, and the trick is to lure a man into a virtual private room where he will pay per minute to watch you strip or perform sexual acts.

“The first call, I was so nervous,” she says. “But I thought, worst case, I’ll slam the laptop shut and never mention it again. But instantly I enjoyed it, and I was good at it. It’s just sales, really.” Her alter ego, “Bonnie Blue”, was born, and Tia used skills acquired in recruitment to stand out from thousands of other cam girls. She knew how to work out exactly what a man wanted: “You ask them very open questions, so they fill in the gaps for you.”

She kept a second laptop off-camera where she could google unfamiliar sexual practices. “One guy asked for SPH. I had to look it up. It’s small penis humiliation. Then I went, ‘Oh, your penis is so small. It’s pathetic. It looks like an AA battery.’ Some men love that, but I’d no idea.”

Soon she was camming for hours, pulling in good money. I ask how Ollie felt and she says he encouraged her, “though he didn’t pimp me out”. In Australia she’d put on weight, lost her dancer’s body, felt self-conscious, especially as the Gold Coast was a hive of glamorous influencers. “I became really insecure. I’d cover up my body, cancel trips.” Having hundreds of strangers telling her she was beautiful raised her self-confidence. She insists her work wasn’t why Ollie returned to England and they are now divorcing. “We just grew apart.”

After he left, Tia/Bonnie became a “full-service” escort. She recalls the first time she had sex for money. “I was nervous. I thought he might ask for a refund. It was a guy in his thirties with two kids and a missus. He booked a hotel. I remember saying to him, ‘OK, tell me what you like, what you enjoy.’ And he’s like, ‘Look, I just want sex. I’ve got to go in 20 minutes.’ It lasted about five or six. He hopped in the shower and left. I had the biggest smile on my face and £500.”

• Porn, consent and body positivity: How to talk to your teens about sex

She also joined OnlyFans, the British-owned subscription platform that, although it hosts content providers from chefs to celebrities, is chiefly known for porn. Then she applied her sales brain to climbing its rankings. She’d heard about Schoolies, a celebration at the end of Australian high-school exams, and went there to distribute business cards with a QR code to her OnlyFans page. She claims she was only musing whether to sleep with the boys when the Daily Mail ran a story calling her a sexual predator. So she leant into the publicity and offered herself free to 18-year-olds who would consent to be filmed, and then posted their brief encounters online. Her subscriber base soared. She had, it seems, invented a revolutionary category of sex work: the porn star who breaks through a laptop screen into a teenage boy’s life.

Holding a sign saying “Bonk me and let me film it” (made by her mother), she slept with 150 18-year-olds at Nottingham University freshers week and 122 during US spring break in Mexico. The resulting outcry about her seducing and deflowering “barely legal” boys led to her being banned from Airbnb, Tinder, Hinge, Australia (for visa breaches), Fiji and Nottingham Forest’s City Ground stadium, where she’d advertised her location to fans. “But men,” she points out, “have made porn content with schoolgirls since day one. Sexy schoolgirls pretending they don’t want it, then two minutes later they’re bent over the desk. No one has ever caused an uproar about that. So why can’t I do a schoolboy?”

She has a point. “Teen” is porn’s most searched online category and even before the internet, Hustler magazine’s most popular offshoot was Barely Legal: magazines and movies featuring girls of 18 who looked far younger and were frequently shot in student dorms being “sexually initiated” by older men.

Porn as sex education

Porn directors preyed on damaged girls from troubled homes, many of whom were abused as children: they had conveniently lower sexual boundaries and no one to protect them. Today such girls are still likely to end up in prostitution or grim Pornhub clips. But Tia/Bonnie is adamant she has no tragic backstory, no abuse, no “daddy issues”. As does Lily Phillips, another OnlyFans girl from Derbyshire, the subject of a YouTube film about having sex with 100 men. (Tia, who worked with her, claims Lily copied her world record idea.)

Lily Phillips, who made a YouTube film about having sex with 100 men

CHRISTOPHER L PROCTOR

Tia tells me she lost her virginity at 13, to a boy of 14, and first started watching porn at 12. Lily was only 11. For their generation, born in the late Nineties, entering adolescence when smartphones first became widely available, this was unexceptional. In fact, Tia sees porn as vital sex education: “It’s probably best sometimes they watch some to see how it’s done.”

Porn is first consumed now on average at 13, although 15 per cent are just 10. The fallout from this is just filtering through: in 2022, figures showed that the majority of sexual crimes against minors — including rape, assault, indecent exposure and voyeurism — were committed by other children.

Tia and Lily didn’t think anything abnormal happened to them because porn’s narrative that a girl’s role is to serve male needs is now utterly normal. In her videos, Bonnie tells men she wants to be their “slut”, their “cum rag”. The disgustingness is not an unfortunate consequence but part of the point: she displays with relish her eyes almost blinded by semen, the bedroom floor littered with hundreds of discarded condoms. She claims gangbangs are her sexual kink. “I tell men, ‘Throw me around, destroy me, spit on me, slap me … I want you to make a mess of me.’ ”

I say such porn has made men think that choking women during sex — a sometimes lethal act — is normal. “If I went on a first date, I’d want him to choke me,” she says. “I just think when rougher sex is posted, whether that’s on Pornhub or OnlyFans, it should have a warning. Like when you watch Britain’s Got Talent and it says, ‘Don’t try this at home.’ ”

Yet she rarely orgasms in her films “because I need to concentrate, and there’s too much going on. Making sure my hands are both moving, my mouth is busy, the next guy is coming in …” So your porn has nothing to do with female pleasure? “I get a lot of pleasure from men’s pleasure,” she says, “knowing it’s turning them on.”

Photographed on social media with (fake) police as a publicity stunt

@BONNIE_BLUE_XOX/INSTAGRAM

‘If you could earn £1 million a month, you’d get your bits out’

By January, Bonnie claimed to have 800,000 OnlyFans subscribers — a mixture of free and paid accounts — making her its top content creator and, since it takes 20 per cent of earnings, its biggest cash cow. In the Channel 4 documentary, her mother remarks that although shocked initially by her daughter’s career, “If you could earn £1 million a month, you’d change your morals and get your bits out.”

Tia/Bonnie turned the outrage about her having sex with young fans into online rocket fuel. She baited the (mainly) women who denounced her, saying they were too lazy to have sex with their husbands. To critics who said she was putting feminism back 100 years, she replied it was stay-at-home mums, not a financially independent woman like her, who were socially regressive. Soon everyone was talking and tiktoking about her and she felt her profile was high enough for her biggest event to date: sleeping with 1,000 men.

The insatiable woman is a mythic figure, a source of horror and disgust from Messalina, wife of the Roman emperor Claudius, who was said to slip out of her palace to bed dozens of men in brothels, to the Singaporean porn actress Annabel Chong, who in 1995 replicated Messalina’s feat. Hired by the porn director John T Bone, Chong staged what was dubbed “the world’s biggest gangbang” on a set made to look like a Roman orgy. Chong, who was only 22 and had been brutally gang-raped as a student in England, claimed to be challenging gender roles when, over the course of 10 hours, she had sex with 70 men a total of 251 times.

This record was broken by various porn stars and had been held since 2004 by Lisa Sparks, who at the third annual world gangbang championship in Warsaw reportedly had sex with 919 men.

Tia/Bonnie organised her attempt on the record like a military operation, hiring a house in Marylebone and 16 staff to process the queue. Advertising her location on Telegram and X, she told men “to bring your friends, your family and your neighbours”. Hundreds showed up to have their ID verified and to wait in a corridor for hours. Condoms were provided and blue balaclavas for those who wanted to hide their faces on film. A “fluffer” was employed to get them excited. Some men had a few minutes alone but most took part in vast group sessions. To count towards her tally, each man needed to penetrate her vagina at least momentarily.

Why do men like gangbangs? “Some find it fun,” she says. “I’ve had groups of friends just having a laugh, high-fiving each other. I feel more confident that if one of those guys felt depressed, he could reach out to one of his friends because they’ve got an open relationship, a connection.” (I wonder why they can’t, maybe, go paintballing.) She has security because, “I get scared that if a guy comes on another guy by mistake, they’d be like, ‘Oh, you’re gay. Why have you done that?’ ”

When Bonnie appeared with him on the Disruptors podcast, Andrew Tate said men who enjoy gangbangs are gay. “He thinks everything’s gay.”

Appearing on the Disruptors podcast with Andrew Tate in June

@BONNIE_BLUE_XOX/INSTAGRAM

Speaking of the physical toll of her world record, Tia/Bonnie sounds like a marathon runner pushing her body to the max. She talks of staying hydrated and keeping up her blood sugar halfway through with a doughnut. “Eight hours in,” she says, “I started to sting, so I thought I’m going to use some lube, but that stung more.” Her jaw seized up, but she was more concerned with her sexual reputation than the pain.

I ask if she’s ever turned down a man and she cites one with a fake ID and another who shamed other men for their small penises. “I told him instantly to get out.” But aren’t some men disgusting or smelly? She says she tastes more Lynx aftershave than unclean penis. Then she tells me something so disgusting I gag — that she was once expected to lick the anus of a porn star with huge piles. Oh Tia, I say, and she says brightly she’d do it for anyone. “Mostly they’re quite clean.”

What about loving sex? “I’m taking a break,” she says. “Me and my ex were together for a very long time and I’m fine not being in a relationship. It’s going to be difficult when I’m ready to date, because of what I do.” But, she adds, “Some of the sex I have with people is loving, but it’s not boyfriend and girlfriend loving.”

TOM JACKSON FOR THE TIMES MAGAZINE. STYLING: ERMES DE CRISTOFARO AND SUSIE LETHBRIDGE

Too extreme for OnlyFans

After she’d completed the 1,000-man gangbang and Josh was editing it to be sold to subscribers for an estimated £300,000, OnlyFans suddenly announced it would not host porn made with amateurs. Visa, which runs its online payment scheme, thought her material too extreme. Analysts have also noted that OnlyFans is preparing for an $8 billion (£6 billion) sale and didn’t wish to scare off buyers.

So Bonnie hired 100 professional porn actors for another challenge. I sense she found this painful and unpleasant: the men were exceptionally well endowed and pounded her aggressively. But she needed new content to maintain her ranking.

But then Bonnie announced another event: a human “petting zoo”. She would be tied up helplessly in a glass box, and people could do anything they liked to her while others watched. Some compared it to Marina Abramovic’s 1974 performance Rhythm 0, where the Serbian artist sat still before a table of 72 objects, including feathers, honey, a scalpel and a gun, which her audience could use on her. But Bonnie says she’d never heard of this, “and she gave them all these horrible sharp things — I was just going to have dildos and lube”.

For OnlyFans the petting zoo was the limit: Bonnie was kicked off the site, cutting her income instantly from £1.5 million a month to zero. She quickly joined another platform, Fansly, where she has built up 30,000 subscribers. But she says OnlyFans then told her she could not upload her 1,000-men event, which she claims cost £100,000 to host, because the men’s consent forms don’t grant permission to other sites. So all her hard work is still in the can.

The Andrew Tate podcast helped raise her profile, but also aligned her with a loathed misogynist who faces rape and human-trafficking charges, though he has denied acting unlawfully. So to keep relevant, to maintain her income, she is forced to create ever more extreme content. One option is to release a tape of her having anal sex, which, unusually for a porn star, she has never done. “That would probably get me £1 million.” (Lily Phillips is releasing hers too.)

To feed online rage, she has just filmed a “sex education” lesson in a classroom with very young-looking OnlyFans creators dressed in school uniforms. All look nervous; none has ever had sex in public. The boys are flushed from taking Viagra. Bonnie talks on camera of these girls needing to be “stretched out” by men. She is adamant they’re all over 18 and are never forced to do anything that makes them uncomfortable. Nonetheless, I say, it feels like a shift from selling her own body to pimping out young people, who may not be as secure and mentally strong. I get the death stare. “I’m not their mum. I’m not there to guide them. I’m here to say, ‘Hey, this is a business opportunity.’ ”

The youngsters are not paid but hope creating content with Bonnie will raise their OnlyFans ranking. But what, you wonder, will be their futures, now this material is online for ever? And what of hundreds of other girls — and boys — who will follow them into this rapacious industry? Or the millions who will view what Bonnie does as a template for their own sex lives?

Posing for her Instagram feed

@BONNIE_BLUE_XOX/INSTAGRAM

A few days later when I ring Tia/Bonnie, she’s on a lilo in the south of France, planning her next move. She is far from Draycott and her parents’ relentless, decent toil. “Each day I wake up so excited. I can’t believe this is my life.” Yet no one believes she’s really happy. “They say to me, ‘You’re a suicide waiting to happen,’ ” she explains. Unlike Lily Phillips, who broke down after her 100-men gangbang, Bonnie insists you’ll never see her cry.

But it feels like she’s painted herself into a corner: what will she have to endure to top her already extreme challenges? She’s stopped going out much, because she’s scared the barrage of online hate may manifest as real violence. With her toughness, drive, looks and engaging personality, Tia reminds me of the flinty young women who win The Apprentice. Given the right breaks she could have made it in business, say, or TV. Instead, she will always be Bonnie Blue, the Stakhanovite sex worker, the Ayn Rand of porn.
 

1,000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story is on Channel 4 on July 29

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TOPJAW - Best Curry in London: Where Chefs Eat

We’ve interviewed 200 chefs, industry dons and our favourite celebs on the Best of London, we’ve totted up all the answers and these are the Top 5 best curries as voted for by them. 

Best Curry doesn’t mean Indian, we receive answers from all regions around the world where curry is a significant part of their cuisine. However, I guess the Top 5 list is a reflection of our affinity towards Indian cuisine. 

Which question shall we do next?

00:00 Brigadiers
03:48 Tayyabs
07:20 BiBi
11:17 Darjeeling Express
14:15 Gymkhana

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